1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of forming embedded interconnections of copper on a surface of a substrate such as a semiconductor wafer, and a structure of such embedded interconnections of copper.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, aluminum alloys have heretofore been used as the materials of interconnections for use in semiconductor devices. For lower electric resistance and greater migration resistance, however, embedded interconnections of copper produced by a damascene process, and such embedded interconnections of copper arranged in multiple layers are employed.
Conventional multilayer embedded interconnections of copper have suffered various problems. Such problems will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1A through 1C of the accompanying drawings which illustrate a process of successive steps of forming multilayer embedded interconnections of copper.
As shown in FIG. 1A, an interconnection 111 of copper is embedded in the upper surface of an insulating layer 110 of silicon dioxide (SiO.sub.2). Another insulating layer 120 of silicon dioxide (SiO.sub.2) is disposed on the insulating layer 110 and the interconnections 111 for insulating the interconnections of copper (Cu) 111 in an upper layer. When the insulating layer 120 is deposited on the interconnections layer 111, an exposed upper surface 111a of the interconnections 111 is undesirably oxidized by oxygen.
As shown in FIG. 1B, an etchant (etching gas) is applied to etch the insulating layer 120 through a hole 131 defined in a resist layer pattern 130 on the surface of the insulating layer 120 for thereby forming a hole 121 in the insulating layer 120, which will be filled with a plug for connection to the interconnections 111. When the insulating layer 120 is thus etched, the exposed upper surface 111a of the interconnections 111 is undesirably modified in the composition by the etchant.
As shown in FIG. 1C, when the resist layer 130 (see FIG. 1B) is removed using oxygen, the exposed upper surface 111a of the interconnections 111 is undesirably oxidized by the applied oxygen.